1. Field of the Invention
Systems, methods, and apparatus consistent with the present invention relate to automatically facilitating a negotiation between a buyer and seller of goods or services. More particularly, the systems, methods and devices described here concern a networked computer system that automatically makes an offer and/or counter offer that mimics a negotiation experience between a buyer and a seller.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many systems have been developed to date which allow a consumer to research specific products, to search actual and/or virtual inventory for a product provided by a specific vendor, and the ability to buy, bid on, or make an offer for a desired product. While these systems have given consumers a great deal of flexibility they do not allow a consumer to participate in the real-time negotiation of price with a vendor for a specific item. This negotiation process is especially important in the automotive space because it is what consumers have come to expect when dealing with automotive dealers in a face to face manner; however, consumers typically look at the face to face negotiation process as the least enjoyable part of the vehicle buying process. Despite advances in computer and networking technologies, there remains an unfulfilled need for a mechanism for facilitating a two-way offer/counter offer negotiation experience without the need for an in-person face to face meeting.
In a typical auction experience consumers make offers for specific item(s) and the success of those offers is based on offers from other consumers for the same item(s). But these conventional auction systems do not give a consumer a mechanism to negotiate individually and directly with the vendor of the item to allow for appropriate feedback, such as counter offers, from the vendor and the ability to negotiate in real-time. For example, the One Shot Bid process provides the consumer a one-way communication system where the amount the consumer is willing to pay, in this case a bid, is evaluated against a single value to determine success or failure but no additional feedback is provided. Such an approach often limits the consumer to a predetermined number of bids or offers.
Accordingly, there exists an unmet need for a system that automatically facilitates a two-way negotiation dialog between consumers and a system that negotiates on behalf of dealers. Such a system is needed to make counter offers on behalf of dealers based on pre-configured pricing components that the dealers establish. Further, a system is needed that is not limited to accepting only a predetermined number of bids or offers from a consumer.